Meta Meta is introducing an option for WhatsApp users to have private chats with its AI assistant that even the company can’t read. It offers incognito chat with Meta AI as a way to have clandestine conversations with the chatbot under the protection of end-to-end encryption, which WhatsApp has long offered for human-to-human chats. Meta revealed that it was working on such a feature at its LlamaCon generative AI conference in April 2025. The company created Incognito Chat with Meta AI using its private processing technology. It specifies that messages…
Author: Ella Richardson
In this week’s “Sunday Reboot,” a good chip problem for Apple, regulatory comparisons to oranges and “Schmigadoon!” earned 12 Tony Award nominations.Sunday restart is a weekly column covering some of the more light-hearted stories in the Apple reality distortion space from the past seven days. All this to start next week with a good first step.This week, Apple faced Maryland lawmakers who sided with Apple Towson employees after the store’s closure was announced, Canada wants Apple to weaken encryption, and Apple failed to narrow the scope of a $4.1 billion iCloud lawsuit in the United Kingdom.A tale of two chip…
After an incredibly rocky start, Apple Maps is one of the most frequently used apps on iPhone. Here’s everything you need to know about using it in iOS 26 and how it all started.Apple CardsNavigation apps are a common feature of modern operating systems and the mobile device experience. Getting users from point A to point B is an important task, which has been perfected by a few navigation apps, such as Apple Maps and Google Maps.Apple Maps is built into iOS and does what you’d expect from an app of this type. Opening it presents a view of your…
Google has largely moved away from big annual OS updates in favor of more frequent Pixel Drops. Still, the pre-I/O edition of The Android Show gives the company the chance to give you a glimpse of what’s coming via Android 17. The most exciting update for many will be the introduction of 3D emoji. Google calls this collection Noto 3D. Pixel phones will be the first to have access to these emoji later this year. Google says they will be available on all its products. A new text-to-speech feature based on Gemini Intelligence, called Rambler, will aim to remove filler…
amgun/Shutterstock A new report from the Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) reveals that sophisticated hacker groups have begun using AI tools to create and deploy zero-day exploits. This revelation confirms what many technology analysts have been warning about for some time, that advanced AI tools will inevitably allow bad actors to discover vulnerabilities they might not have discovered otherwise. The GTIG report says it has identified a “threat actor using a zero-day exploit that we believe was developed with AI.” The report does not provide additional details on the identity…
I haven’t mowed my lawn in over a month, but it’s maintained like a golf course. That’s because I went from a push mower to a robot mower that I manage from my iPhone. It’s the Anthbot M9, and it’s by far my favorite new tech that I’ve tried this year. The Anthbot M9 robot lawn mower is actually easy to install and use When the Anthbot M9 robot lawn mower arrived for testing, I postponed installing it until I had a few free hours to devote to using it. In reality, it took me less than 30 minutes to…
We’re heading into a summer of software unveilings, but Apple has announced more than 15 new hardware products launching later this year, including several iPads. Here’s the latest on the new iPads to look forward to. #1: iPad mini with OLED screen The iPad mini may not be the most popular model, but it has its enthusiastic fans. And later this year, the launch of a new iPad mini is rumored to bring at least one big change. Reports from multiple sources including Bloombergsaid that the next iPad mini will benefit from an OLED screen. The current iPad mini’s LCD…
Building a smart home that responds in less than a second is no joke. Take a cue from someone who struggled with Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod to build a smart home that triggers commands and automations after a few seconds. And that too, if they worked. Instead of giving up on my smart home dreams, I decided to replace the smart home hub entirely. I bought a $120 HP ProDesk 600 G6 Mini PC and turned it into my own smart home hub using Home Assistant that ran on Proxmox. Then I added a $20 Zigbee USB dongle (SONOFF…
The first release candidate of iOS 26.5 is now available for iPhone. After several beta versions, it is probably the version of iOS 26.5 which will arrive at customers in a few days. iOS 26.5 release candidate is now available iOS 26.5 beta includes splash screen for ads in Apple Maps, coming this summer; Bluetooth pairing via USB for Apple Magic accessories, like on Mac; Suggested places in Apple Maps and some EU-specific changes. Check out our roundup of iOS 26.5 changes and features here. Today’s iOS 26.5 release likely arrives about a week before the official release of the…
Apple’s earnings call revealed a few things that make it easy to see what products we can and can’t expect between now and September. The “not coming” list is much longer than the “probably coming” list.The Mac supply is limited, the iPad is not updated and iPhones are not released until the fall. So there’s not much left that could happen in the intervening months.The Mac mini, Mac Studio, and iMac are all waiting for their M5 upgrades, but Apple’s supply chain is already significantly backed up. You can’t buy an M4 Mac mini if you want to.Memory prices and…